ArmInfo.Aurora humanitarian initiative is pleased to announce that Bernard Kouchner, one of the founders of Medecins Sans Frontieres, joined the Selection Committee of the Aurora Prize. The Selection Committee, which identifies the names of the finalists and laureate of the Aurora Prize each year, includes humanitarian figures, human rights activists and former heads of state, and is headed by its Academy Award-winning actor, director and philanthropist George Clooney.
The world-famous politician and physician Bernard Kouchner is one of the founders of the organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (1971), which won the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1980, he also became a co-founder of the "Doctors of the World" (Medecins du Monde). From 2007 to 2010, Kouchner was Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, and previously was Minister of Health of the country. He organized humanitarian operations around the world, including in Somalia, El Salvador, Lebanon, Syria, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Uruguay, Peru, Guatemala, Honduras, Chad, Libya, Nigeria and beyond. Bernard Kouchner also headed the mission of "Doctors without Borders", providing medical assistance to the victims of the Spitak earthquake in Armenia, which happened 29 years ago.
"We are very pleased that Bernard Kouchner joined the Selection Committee of the Aurora Prize. He devoted most of his life to helping developing countries, where a state of emergency was declared, and applied the accumulated knowledge and skills, "Ruben Vardanyan, co-founder of the Aurora humanitarian initiative, said. "Thanks to Mr. Kouchner and his organization, the victims of the 1988 earthquake in Armenia immediately received the necessary medical assistance. We are grateful to Bernard Kouchner for his tireless efforts and are convinced that his valuable experience will help us in considering nominations for the Aurora Prize. "It is a great honor for me to become a part of the Selection Committee of the Aurora Prize and to join the initiative, which for such a short period has already changed for the better thousands of lives," Bernard Kouchner said. "During my career, I was fortunate to meet many heroes working in the disaster zones, and I am encouraged by the opportunity to pay tribute to such wonderful people, calling them the winners of the Aurora Prize. In addition to Bernard Kouchner, the Aurora Prize Selection Commission includes Nobel Peace Prize winners Oscar Arias, Shirin Ebadi and Laima Gbovi, former Irish President Mary Robinson, former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, human rights activist Hina Jilani, director of the Institute for Global Innovation in Health Care Imperial College London Lord Ara Darzi, former Australian Foreign Minister and Honorary President of the International Crisis Group Gareth Evans, President of the Carnegie Corporation in New York Vartan Gregorian and laureate and Oscar, actor and philanthropist George Clooney. Aurora Prize, created on behalf of all survivors of the Armenian Genocide and as a token of gratitude to their saviors, is awarded for the third year already. For the prize "Aurora" - 2018, 750 applications from 115 countries were sent. On December 4, 2017, the Selection Panel will hold a meeting in Berlin to review the nominations received. Also in Berlin, the Humanitarian Initiative "Aurora" will hold the first ever "Aurora" Dialogues outside Armenia called "Millions in Motion: The Time of Development and Integration". The conference will be held on December 4-5, 2017 thanks to the joint efforts of the Aurora humanitarian initiative, the Mercator Foundation, the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Global Perspectives initiative. Speakers will be able to discuss the scale of the global migration crisis and assess the role of various actors in the process of making changes for the better. The names of the finalists of the "Aurora" prize - 2018 will be announced in Armenia on April 24, 2018, when the whole world will remember the Armenian Genocide of 1915. The results of the third annual award will be summed up in Armenia on June 10, 2018 at a special ceremony, during which the laureate will receive $ 100,000 and the opportunity to give $ 1 million to the organizations chosen by them.